Thursday, March 04, 2010

Mobile Natural User Interfaces – Using your arm as keyboard

Check out one more amazing technology that Microsoft Research has come up with. The Mobile Natural User Interfaces (NUI). A muscle computer interface, a system that senses finger gestures based on muscle activity on forearm.

Controlling mobile phone scenario just by tapping on an arm, just like on a keyboard or a mouse click. So this input device (arm) goes everywhere with you unlike Keyboard and mouse.

“….We take advantage of sensing technologies that enable us to decode the signals generated by the body. We will demo muscle-computer interfaces, electromyography-based armbands that sense muscular activation directly to infer finger gestures on surfaces and in free space, and bio-acoustic interfaces, mechanical sensors on the body that enable us to turn the entire body into a tap-based input device.”

This will be featured at TechFest2010.

Check out the demo video showing – playing guitar in just thin air using your arm and fingers. Another demo shows using your arm as keyboard and mouse controlling various menu options.

Rick Rashid, senior vice president of Microsoft Research, addresses an audience of Microsoft customers and partners, at Microsoft Research TechFest 2010. Also a detailed demo given on Mobile Natural User Interface . Some of the screenshots taken from the Keynote video.